


The Lonely Depths

by Aurum_Auri



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Afterlife, Happy Ending, M/M, Mentions of Death, Pirate Victor, Tentacles, YOI Nautical Zine, davy jones locker, davy jones yuuri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-05-03 05:45:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14562162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurum_Auri/pseuds/Aurum_Auri
Summary: Yuuri was lord of this undersea hell, the god of death at sea, ruler of Davy Jones Locker.More than anything, he was in love with a mortal.





	The Lonely Depths

**Author's Note:**

> My submission to YOI Nautical Zine! Thank you, thank you, a thousand times THANK YOU to everyone who purchased the zine and helped contribute to saving Coral Reefs. 
> 
> Please note that there ARE mentions of death, however, there is absolutely a happy ending! Please enjoy, and one last time, THANKS!
> 
> And one more special thanks to the amazing Carymono, who did an absolutely gorgeous piece of art for this fic. I'll be sure to link it here when she posts it ;)

Sailors had legends of Davy Jones’s Locker. 

Yuuri dragged another cluster of souls into the depths with a sigh, packing each condensed silvery essence of mortal spirit into its own spot in this world. 

They knew what awaited them from the moment they left the shore. Then again, it never did get easier to hear their wails of despair. 

Pirates, passengers, merchants, and navy men, all were Yuuri’s to judge when the sea claimed their lives, the captains, admirals, mainmast riggers, and cabin boys alike. Yuuri hoarded them all to himself. Death was inevitable, and the locker always had room for more souls. 

Davy Jones himself had grown weary of this job after a few millennia. Yuuri could see why. Day in, day out, the same choices: to send them back to the surface with the other mortals, or to bring them down to his domain, trapped forever in Davy Jones’s locker. 

Sometimes the decision was easy. A little boy fallen off a ship, Yuuri sent back. He let his little octopus, Vicchan, guide the child’s soul back to the mortal world. Yuuri’s power guided him on a driftwood piece back toward the passenger vessel he'd fallen from. 

Sometimes the choices were harder. A father sailing home from a long journey, testing his fate on a shortcut. A murderous vagabond taking a bullet for another. Tougher choices left him second-guessing not only himself, but his role in this vicious cycle of life and death. 

Mortals called it the sea hell. And maybe for some, it was. Davy Jones’s Locker existed as a dimension adjacent to the sea floor, a mirror through which mortals and sea creatures alike could exist, imprisoning the souls of those who died at sea. 

It was Yuuri’s job to judge everyone who entered, no matter how tough the call. But he never expected things to turn out like this.

* * *

 

There were times when Yuuri could feel a storm brewing or a fight break out. He couldn’t explain it, except as a draw pulling him to the surface. Inevitably, there would be a ship facing catastrophe. 

Tonight was no different. Yuuri surfaced, the array of tentacles at his back keeping him easily afloat. He could see the individuals marked to die. It was a one-sided fight.

Two ships had met at daybreak. One was a massive vessel hung with faded scarlet sails, a little worse for the wear but not out of commission yet. Beside her starboard bow, boarding planks connected her to a slightly smaller. white-sailed ship that was taking on water at a prodigious pace. 

Blood slicked the decks of both ships. Battles ranged between the two, brutal and vicious. There was no mercy at sea between rival pirate, and tides favored the larger ship. 

Yuuri watched in morbid fascination while he collected the souls between his fingers, curling them into rings and gathering them on his tentacles in gleaming bands of silver. 

It was a suicide mission. The smaller ship was short on supplies, and out of desperation, had hoped to seize some from a better prepared ship. Yuuri had seen it many times. The smaller ship was weak. Many perished. There was no joy here, only cruel efficiency. 

But in the mess, Yuuri found himself looking upon beauty. Hypnotized, he rose out of the sea, pulling himself hand over hand up the side of the red-sailed ship. He dug his toes in, tentacles curling tight into the hemp ropes for balance. He peered over the edge of the deck. 

The captain was beautiful. His hair fell in a spill of moonlight, long and tied back from his face with a velvet ribbon. He fought like he was dancing and Yuuri couldn’t look away. The man ducked under the swing of an arm, his blade catching another and parrying with the scrape of metal. He was sweating in his sweeping coat, his boots so sure on the blood-slick deck. Strands of his long hair stuck to his face. 

Yuuri was captivated.

It was such a silly thing, Yuuri’s instant fascination with the man. The lovely mortal wasn’t slated for death today, and yet Yuuri found himself hanging on every move the man made. Yuuri’s breath caught in his throat. The mortal fought like a man possessed, and yet he was endlessly graceful with every swing of his blade, every cracking report of his pistol. Yuuri claimed two, three, four souls killed by the mortal’s hand.

It was over so fast. The few surrendering survivors were brought into the ranks, and the small stock of treasure on the little ship was brought aboard before the ship sank. It was tidy. Efficient. 

Yuuri brought the souls back to his locker and claimed them all as his own. But he couldn’t drive that mortal man out of his mind. 

It was a silly fascination, possessing him at the most absurd hours. Yuuri might finish his work for the day and think of it while wandering the sandy floors of his hellish undersea domain. He’d twirl as he went to the wailing choruses of the damned, and his mind would stray. 

He’d see a flash of blue and remember how bright the man’s eyes were, gleaming in the violent, bloody sunrise. He’d remember pale skin splashed with the life of another man, so violent and yet so at peace, and wonder how any mortal could be so coldly efficient, and then turn to the survivors and welcome them so warmly aboard his vessel. 

The mortal man was a wonder. 

Yuuri started to watch him from afar in free moments. Mortals were always so fascinating, but there was something about this one that drew Yuuri in. Victor, the crew called him. Captain Nikiforov, a respected leader and a feared pirate. His pale crimson sails were feared across the sea. He didn’t fear for his life the way others did. There was a heavy gravity in everything he did, something solemn and graceful. 

Sometimes he’d go ashore with a dog he sailed with. At ports, they would walk, a fine pair unafraid of what they’d encounter. If he had the time, Yuuri would trail a ways behind, hiding the tentacles he used for swimming, and he’d watch as Victor’s smile would break when he was alone. 

Yuuri’s hearts leapt every time Victor danced with the poodle, taking its paws into his hands and laughing so brightly. It was a side of Victor that the crew never saw. Victor was young and bright and vital, unpredictable but devastatingly effective. He would rule the seven seas. Yuuri couldn’t look away. 

A year passed, two, then three, and Yuuri started to find himself truly enjoying every moment he spent looking into this window of mortality. Yuuri had never studied a mortal so closely before. Even walking through his castle, Yuuri often found himself wondering how his favorite mortal was faring back in the world of the living. Every breath of surface air made his mind wander away to the dashing captain. 

One evening, a familiar pull drew him to the surface of the sea. Yuuri shed his jacket and shrugged out his tentacles, letting them fall behind him like a writhing cape. He swam faster with them out, and Yuuri didn’t feel like waiting to see what was happening. He broke the surface, dragging his fingers through his hair to move it from his eyes.

He was greeted with the sight of faded red sails against a bloody sunset sky, streams of thick, black smoke billowing into the wispy clouds above. Yuuri’s heart sunk. “No,” he breathed. The ship was burning. 

Yuuri numbly gathered the souls, breath lodging tight in his throat. Victor’s soul shined like a beacon in the twilight. Yuuri held it close. It was so warm. 

It was his job to capture the souls. And holding Victor in his hands gave him a dark streak of possessiveness. But Victor deserved better than him. Yuuri was so selfish to want to keep him.  Victor deserved to have the sea under his thumb. He deserved to be free. 

Yuuri collected the other souls, but he held Victor close to his heart. This was a terrible mistake. This was a terrible idea. But Yuuri couldn’t be stopped.

He swam back to Davy Jones’s Locker, picking his way to his castle within. He let the tentacles collapse against his skin. Only when he was ready did he take a deep breath and release Victor. The mortal stumbled to his feet in the center of the large throne room. Yuuri was seated before him, watching as Victor got his bearings. 

Yuuri knew what a shock it must have been. Davy Jones’s Locker had a mirage-like quality to it. Sea creatures and land creatures alike roamed the territory. Yuuri and Victor walked like they were on the surface, but manta rays flew past like birds. Yuuri himself had Vicchan splayed out on his lap, tentacles curling under his palms. The colors of the little cephalopod’s skin flickered to match the black and silver threaded suit Yuuri wore. 

“Where am I?” Victor asked.

“You’re in my domain,” Yuuri said. He sounded more confident than he felt, which he supposed would suffice for now. “Welcome to Davy Jones’s Locker. You are here for one reason, and one reason only.”

“You’re Davy Jones?” Victor said, looking genuinely surprised. 

Yuuri blinked. “Uh… no? I’m Yuuri. But I am the Lord of this world.” He straightened his shoulders and stared down at Victor.

“So… I’m dead?” Victor breathed. He stared at his hands, turning them over and over again, as though expecting them to disappear or become translucent.

“Your ship burned. Many of your crew perished. What remains are limping the tattered vessel back to port and praying to the gods they make it.”

The lost expression on Victor’s face deepened. “You… you’re not serious.” There was a pause where Victor seemed unsure of what to think, what to say. But then Victor squared up and looked Yuuri in the eye, suddenly every inch the esteemed captain. “Why am I here, then, Yuuri, lord of this sea hell.”

“It is my duty to judge the souls that enter my domain. I decide what happens to them, if they stay with me, and if so, where they go. Sometimes I allow mortals to return to their world. But as for where to put you, well… I can’t say I’m quite sure where you belong.” 

The unsteadiness started to creep up. Yuuri swallowed it back. 

“You will stay in the castle here with me until a decision has been reached. Stay or go, once my mind is made up, you must abide that decision. Do you understand?”

Victor smiled pleasantly. “Well, I don’t see any other way out of this, is there?”

And from that moment, Yuuri knew he was screwed.

“What kind of people get returned to the surface?” Victor asked the first day, trailing behind Yuuri as he attended to matters within the castle. 

Yuuri hummed. “People who have more potential on the surface than below. A death can be just as inspiring as a life, and everyone has their place somewhere. Where that is, I must determine.”

“That’s an awful lot of power,” Victor said. “What if you’re wrong?”

Yuuri halted. His body went rigid, and he shook his head. “I… I’m never wrong,” he said. 

Victor studied him, a finger on his lips. Yuuri noticed how Victor’s eyes strayed to Vicchan. As though the air they walked through was water, Vicchan swam beside them, crawling along the ground in flushed shades of red and brown. Yuuri held a hand out, and the cephalopod climbed Yuuri’s wrist eagerly, his weight comforting.

Yuuri turned his shoulder and continued walking. 

Days turned to weeks. Sometimes Victor left Yuuri to his business alone. He would vanish for long periods of time. Yuuri assumed he was mourning in his own way. Mortals always mourned their deaths, even in limbo where their status was unknown.

Sometimes he would pass his days with swordplay. Yuuri watched from a distance in his free time, unwilling and unable to look away from the steady, confident grace with which Victor carried himself. 

But sometimes Victor would come up and talk. He’d look around and see something unique to this world, like the bioluminescent lamps lining the streets and corridors, or the sharks seemingly swimming through open air. “What’s that music?” he asked. 

“The damned,” Yuuri replied. 

“It’s so sad.”

“They’re dead,” Yuuri said simply. “They sing because there’s nothing else.”

“Nothing at all?” Victor asked. 

Yuuri shook his head. There was never anything else. “This realm isn’t a place for happiness. This is a realm of death. There is only sorrow and loneliness here.”

Victor put a finger to his lips, still studying Yuuri. “How long have you been here?”

“As long as I’ve existed,” Yuuri said. “I don’t remember when I was born. Davy Jones retired, and my presence was necessary for this world to function.”

“And you’ve been alone all this time?” Victor asked.

Yuuri shrugged. “I have Vicchan.” He gestured to the octopus on his shoulder. Vicchan was enough.

The next day, Victor showed him how he used his swords, how a flick of the wrist could disarm an opponent, how a simple sidestep could bring him out of harm’s way. Yuuri tried to follow the movements, but he simply couldn't compare to Victor’s careless grace. 

They sat together in the eerie, night-like darkness of the abyss, watching the bioluminescent phytoplankton dance. It was quiet, but not uncomfortable. Something about having Victor by his side was so different from having Vicchan beside him, something impossible to put into words. It was a quiet weight on Yuuri’s hearts, companionable, peaceful. 

After a month in limbo, Yuuri knew he had to make a choice. It wasn’t fair to torture Victor like this. Victor pretended to be fascinated by this world, but Yuuri knew the truth. No one really wanted to stay. Victor deserved to know where he stood, and Yuuri was greedy to keep him here. Whether he joined his old crewmates within the locker or returned to the surface, it was time to make a choice. 

But oh, how Yuuri wanted to keep Victor in his clutches and never let him go. Yuuri wanted to trap him here forever and watch the way he moved. Mortals were endlessly lovely, and Victor was the most enchanting of them all. 

Victor had learned quickly how to manipulate Yuuri just right, how to worm his way into Yuuri’s  hearts. The way he smiled had changed, his lips curling into a heart shape that set Yuuri’s own three hearts pounding. Yuuri had to escape. He had to think. 

To the chorus of the damned, he began to dance, trying to forget the decision that needed to be made. To keep or to send away. To return Victor to the shore, or to covet the man forever in his box of souls. Yuuri let his body relax to the haunting melodies of the dead. He discarded the jacket, and he let the tentacles on his back come free.

He’d kept them so closely clamped to his body, it was starting to get sore, but he didn’t dare let Victor see. And with them free, he danced until he forgot. Around and around and around the room, he spun and dipped and leapt, floating like he was swimming, before dancing along the ground in a crude imitation of mortal ballet. 

There was a sharp intake of breath, and Yuuri froze. 

Victor stood in the entry, eyes wide in shock. Yuuri clamped the tentacles in around him, hurrying to wrap the coat around himself. He should have known it wouldn’t be safe. “I’m so sorry you saw that, I promise, I won’t put you through something so horrifying again-”

“What do you mean? Horrifying?” Victor breathed. He didn’t look frightened, for reasons Yuuri didn’t understand.

“This was a mistake,” Yuuri said sharply. He shook his head, trying to leave, but Victor caught his wrist. 

“This is what you do all alone?” Victor asked. “You look so sad, Yuuri. The way you move, it’s so beautiful, it breaks my heart.” 

“Don’t give me that,” Yuuri snapped “I don’t want your pity. I’m not alone, and I’m not sad. I’m fine here alone.” He waved his hand, and Victor’s soul condensed into a silvery sphere, his body vanishing within its confines. With a savage wave, the silver ball began to drift away, and Vicchan followed, guiding it to the surface. 

Yuuri sank to his knees, clutching his head to stifle the sob. He didn’t need pity. And at the very least, he could give Victor another chance at life.

It was purely morbid curiosity that Yuuri followed Victor at a distance, careful not to be seen. Victor never showed a trace of emotion, not when he was hailed as recovered from sea by his few remaining crewmates and re-installed as Captain. 

His dog, Makkachin, had perished in the fire. Yuuri expected him to replace the pretty poodle with another, but Victor did not. Yuuri found her soul among the others he’d stored away, and he held her close. She grew fond of Vicchan, and Yuuri found a small bit of joy in watching the two play in the castle. 

It was natural for people to fear death, most particularly those who had experienced it once before. They often changed in many ways. Yuuri didn’t find himself surprised when Victor took up his sword and sliced his beautiful hair, though he despaired as it fell to the flames, burning away where he couldn’t touch it. Yuuri raged for two months about the loss. Even if Victor did look rather handsome with the new cut...

Personalities often changed as well. Most became paranoid and protective, taking every measure to avoid the icy clutches of the sea. Instead, Victor became reckless, quickly establishing himself as one of the most feared pirates on the high seas. He became renowned for being unstoppable. He was a legendary menace to the British Navy and hunted mercilessly by them.

But as far as anyone, pirate or otherwise, was concerned, Victor was unkillable. He had escaped death’s clutches once, they said, and he would not let death take him again. 

This was what Yuuri deserved: this torture of watching Victor thrive with the life that had been returned to him. There was a fire in Victor’s eyes in every battle. He crusaded, he sailed, he stole. He fought battles he was never meant to win, and Yuuri watched his soul remain on earth, violating every law Yuuri had ever known. 

Victor screamed into the night. Yuuri screamed into the sea. 

Yuuri had made so many wrong decisions in his life before, but this one was truly the worst.

At night, there came a storm, the biggest in a century. Waves taller than the ship, winds strong enough to tear the new, bright crimson sails to shreds. The ship was tossed about like a toy, and the crew was helpless against the power of the ocean. Yuuri was helpless to resist the pull drawing him to the surface. 

He watched, unable to look away. Several numbers were up tonight. Suddenly he couldn’t bring himself to look. 

The ship was dashed against rocks, and several people were flung into the waves. Some died on impact with the water, the sea swells so massive they were falling, falling, falling. Others drowned, and Yuuri collected them too. 

And then Yuuri saw him: Victor, clinging to the rails of the ship and damning the sea at the top of his lungs. He must have seen Yuuri in the water, because he froze. His lips formed words Yuuri couldn't hear over the crashing, roaring waves. 

Yuuri could see it. Victor’s number was up. Yuuri’s beloved captain let go of the rails and fell. 

Yuuri screamed. He swam forward as fast as he could, but he was too late to slow the fall. He gathered Victor’s soul in his arms as the body sank to the sharks. 

“Victor,” he sobbed. “I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I shouldn’t be here- I should have never-”

“You came back,” Victor gasped, shouting to be heard. “I missed you.” He wrapped his arms around Yuuri.

“Why?” Yuuri screamed. “Why would you do this? You deserve the world!”

“I don't. I only want you, if you'll have me,” Victor shouted over the waves. He wrapped his arms around Yuuri, one hand sliding along the tentacles Yuuri had out to keep them above water. 

Rain lashed their skin, and lightning flashed. Thunder roared like a starving animal. 

Yuuri’s eyes were wet with something other than seawater. “If you stay with me, you can never leave again. You'll be trapped with me forever.”

Victor captured him in a long kiss, stealing Yuuri’s breath away. “So be it.  I'll gladly be yours forever.” 

Yuuri grabbed his face and kissed him again. “Good. You're mine,” he breathed. 

His hands slid under the clothes, up Victor’s soaked abdomen. He was muscular and fit, his shoulders so broad, but he was still so slender for a pirate. Victor clutched at Yuuri’s waist, his fingers wrapped almost entirely around the circumference of it, the tips almost touching. Clothing was trying to drag them both down. 

Yuuri couldn't wait. 

He ripped at the clothes with his nails, and they gave, shredding open under his hands. Victor pushed the shreds away, fumbling to touch Yuuri too. One hand slid up to cup Yuuri’s cheek. The other braced itself at Yuuri’s lower back, keeping the storm from dragging him away. 

It stung, the rain pelting their skin. Victor held Yuuri desperately tight, as though he was afraid Yuuri would send him away. Their kisses were feverish. Yuuri shed his shirt and the thunder roared around them, shaking them to their bones. 

Victor shivered. His kisses trailed down, sucking at the salty skin of Yuuri’s jaw down to his throat. He bit, and Yuuri’s head fell back. 

“Victor,” Yuuri gasped. 

“I want you, Yuuri,” Victor gasped. The hand on Yuuri’s lower back scrambled down, sliding inside Yuuri’s trousers. Yuuri groaned. Victor’s fingers pressed inside of him, and there was a rush of cold seawater around his fingers.

Yuuri gasped. His legs wrapped around Victor's waist. The tentacles churned the water, some keeping them afloat, some coiling around and around Victor’s body, refusing to let him free. 

Yuuri pushed his pants off and wrapped himself back around Victor, reaching into the tight trousers Victor wore and pushing them down to Victor’s knees, freeing his cock. It was stiffening already. Despite the stinging cold of the sea, Victor was hard and eager. 

Yuuri slid his own fingers inside himself beside Victor’s, howling at the stretch. Yuuri pulled his hand out and climbed Victor, and Victor groaned into the next kiss. Victor’s hands grabbed Yuuri’s hips and guided him down onto his cock. The waves crashed over them, but neither needed to breathe anymore. They were spirits of the abyss, the dead of the sea. Their rain-slicked kisses could have gone on for eternity. 

When Victor pressed inside him, Yuuri wondered if this was what it felt like when mortals died, that brief pinch of pain, and then whirling elation. It came from the stretch, the closeness of Victor, the touch of Victor’s hand slicking hot and fast over Yuuri’s length, and Victor’s lips ghosting over whatever bit of skin they could reach. 

Yuuri bobbed up and down like the tides, using the pull of the waves to help Victor thrust harder, deeper inside. Yuuri cried out into the storm. Lightning flashed, and Victor’s skin gleamed in the strobing flashes. 

The rain was like ice on his skin, but Victor was warm, so warm, even in death. Victor’s kisses were so full of life. 

Release was a secondary thing for Yuuri. He could have spent a thousand mortal lifetimes wrapped in these arms, full of Victor’s cock, showering Victor in praise and being praised in return. But it was inevitable; Yuuri spilled into the waves, strings of pearly white scattered by the storm and Victor’s come inside him, swished out by seawater. Victor clutched at him, bowing over Yuuri and repeating his name like a mantra, “Yuuri, Yuuri, Yuuri.”

They kissed, and Yuuri descended into the waves, their bodies still intertwined. “Rule beside me,” Yuuri breathed. “Never leave my side.”

“Forever and ever,” Victor replied, and he smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't forget to check out the beautiful art drawn by the fantastic Victuuri_IsLove, which you can find at this link right here!!! Password is just auri. 
> 
> https://twitter.com/Victuuri_IsLove/status/993341329580199936


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